Council of Elders Detailed Strategy Guide (Heroic Mode included)

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the
encounter with Council of Elders in Throne of Thunder. It is targeted at anyone
who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.1.2.

The Council of Elders makes up the third boss encounter of the Throne of Thunder.
During the fight, you will face four Troll bosses at the same time, and the complexity of
the fight stems from dealing simultaneously with the abilities that these four bosses use.

The fight adds a number of positioning constraints on the raid and will require
a great deal of control on the DPS you do on each target.

Your raid will have to face all four Trolls until they die. They do not share
health and they all have their own abilities, which will present your raid
with many challenges.

To make things harder, the spirit of Gara'jal the Spiritbinder
will provide assistance to the Trolls. As a result, one of the Trolls is always
empowered. While empowered, a Troll becomes more dangerous
and eventually starts channeling an ability that deals heavy raid-wide damage.
A Troll is broken out of his empowerment after receiving 25% health in damage.
When this happens, a new Troll gets empowered. This empowerment cycle continues
until all the Trolls are dead.

We have released a video guide for the fight against the Council of Elders. We
strongly recommend watching the video in order to get a better visual idea of
the fight.

On our forums, we are maintaining threads with class-specific advice for each of the
fights of Throne of Thunder. So, make sure to check them out, and if you have things to
share, do not hesitate to contribute!

the Troll starts using an additional ability or a different set of abilities,
it depends on the Troll, as we explain
in the next section;

the Troll gains a Dark Energy bar that has a capacity of 100 Dark Energy
and starts out empty;

the Dark Energy bar fills up at a rate of 3 Energy every 2 seconds, which
means that it takes about 67 seconds for a Troll to reach 100 Dark Energy;

after reaching 100 Dark Energy, the Troll stop using their abilities and
keeps casting Dark Power, which deals increasing damage every second.

To break a Troll out of the empowerment, you need to damage that Troll
for 25% health. For example, if a Troll gets empowered at 90%, then the
empowerment will stop when that Troll's health reaches 65%.

After a Troll is broken out of the empowerment, two things happen:

that Troll receives a stack of Lingering Presence, which increases
the Troll's damage by 10% until the end of the fight and the Troll's Dark
Energy generation by 10% during subsequent empowerments;

a new Troll is empowered by the Spirit of Gara'jal.

Frost King Malakk always seems to be empowered first. We are unsure if
subsequent empowerments are random or if they target the non-empowered Troll
with the highest health. Let us know if you have an opinion on this issue.

When a Troll dies, the remaining Trolls are not healed, unlike what
usually happens in council fights.

When a Troll dies while empowered, nothing out of the ordinary
happens, the empowerment will jump to another Troll, and the empowerment
cycle will continue with the remaining Trolls.

When a Troll dies while not empowered, there is one thing to watch
out for. Namely, if there are only 2 Trolls left and you kill the Troll
that is not empowered, then the empowered Troll will remain empowered until
you kill it. This can be problematic if the empowered Troll still has a lot
of health and is already at 100 Dark Energy.

8.1. Frost King Malakk

Frigid Assault deals Frost damage to the tank and also applies a
stacking debuff on them. The debuff does nothing before it reaches 15 stacks.
When this happens, the tank becomes stunned for 15 seconds. Dealing with this
debuff requires a tank switch.

Biting Cold is cast at a random player, which deals Frost damage
to the targeted player and causes them to deal Frost damage every 2 seconds
to all allies within 4 yards. This effect lasts 30 seconds.

When Malakk is empowered, Biting Cold becomes Frostbite. This
ability targets a random raid member and deals Frost damage to them. It also
applies 5 stacks of Frostbite on them. This debuff causes the player to deal
Frost damage every second to all allies within 4 yards (including the player
themselves), for 30 seconds. The damage dealt to the afflicted players and
the allies within 4 yards is multiplied by the number of stacks. The
stacks can be reduced by doing the following:

in 10-man difficulty, each player within 4 yards of the afflicted player
will cause the afflicted player to lose 2 stacks of the debuff;

in 25-man difficulty, each player within 4 yards of the afflicted player
will cause the afflicted player to lose 1 stack of the debuff;

in LFR difficulty, each player within 4 yards of the afflicted player
will cause the afflicted player to lose 4 stacks of the debuff.

Note that stacks of Frostbite cannot be reduced below 1.

8.2. Kazra'jin

Kazra'jin keeps using Reckless Charge, which causes him to
rush towards the location of a random raid member, damaging everyone in his
path and knocking back players who are still at the targeted location when
he arrives.

When Kazra'jin is empowered, he will cast Overload after each
Reckless Charge. This causes him to become stunned for 20 seconds,
during which he will reflect 50% of the damage he takes as Nature damage.

8.3. Sul the Sandcrawler

Sand Bolt targets a random player and deals Nature damage to them as
well as to all players within 5 yards of them. This ability can and should be
interrupted.

Quicksand creates a pool of sand at a random's player location. Every
second, it deals Nature damage to anyone standing in it. Each time a player
takes damage from Quicksand, they receive a stack of Ensnared, which
reduces their movement speed. If they reach 5 stacks of that debuff, they
become Entrapped for 30 seconds.

When Sul is empowered, he will cast Sandstorm every 40 seconds
(so twice per empowerment, maximum). This ability
transforms every Quicksand pool into a Living Sand. These adds
keep attacking their target with a melee attack. When a Living Sand dies,
it leaves behind a Quicksand pool.

While the Living Sands do not deal much damage, it is not a good idea to
keep them alive (the only reason for doing so being that it reduces the number
of Quicksand pools on the ground) because they
receive a stack of Fortified every time Sandstorm is cast.
This buff increases their damage done by 100% and heal them to full health.

8.4. High Priestess Mar'li

Wrath of the Loa targets a random raid member and deals Holy
damage to them. This ability can and should be interrupted.

Blessed Loa Spirit summons a Blessed Loa Spirit at Mar'li's location.
This spirit does nothing but run towards Mar'li's ally with the lowest
remaining health. If it reaches them, it will heal them for 10% of their maximum
health. If the spirit is still alive after 20 seconds, it will instantly jump
to its target and heal them for 10%. The spirit can be slowed and rooted.

Wrath of the Loa does the same thing as her other ability of the
same name, but it deals Shadow damage instead of Holy damage.

Shadowed Loa Spirit summons a Shadowed Loa Spirit at
Mar'li's location. This spirit does nothing but fixate on a random raid member.
If the spirit comes within 6 yards of that player, they will die. If the spirit
is still alive after 20 seconds, it will instantly jump to the targeted
player and kill them. The spirit can be slowed and rooted.

Having to deal with the abilities of all the Trolls at the same time
makes up for a complex encounter. To explain what the raid has to do more
clearly, we will break down our instructions by role (tank, healer, DPS).
That said, there are concerns that everyone shares and we will start with
them.

9.1. Main Concerns

9.1.1. Positioning Issues

The various abilities of the Trolls will put a number of positioning
constraints on the raid, namely:

when Kazra'jin uses Reckless Charge, he will turn towards the
targeted raid member and everyone on his path has a second or two to get
out of the way;

when Frost King Malakk is empowered, make sure that 2 players in
10-man, 4 players in 25-man, and 1 player in LFR stand within 4 yards
of the afflicted player. This will make Frostbite easier to deal with.

For melee players, it will be harder to spread properly, so they will
simply have to contend with more damage taken. Also, they will often need
to all move to avoid the charges from Kazra'jin or the Quicksand pools.

Note that in 25-man, having 0 or 4 players standing within 4 yards of the
player afflicted by Frostbite does not change the overall damage that
this ability does (1 hit with 5 stacks is the same as 5 hits with 1 stack).
The only difference is that, with 4 players within 4 yards, the damage will
be spread between these players and the afflicted player, making it easier
to heal.

For Shadowed Loa Spirit, the spirit targets a random raid member,
so if everyone is far away from Mar'li (except for her tank, whom the spirit
never seems to target), then it will be easier to keep
the spirit away from the targeted player.

9.1.3. Intense Moments with Living Sands

When Sul casts Sandstorm during his third and fourth empowerments,
you should be prepared to
see a lot of Living Sands spawning. This creates a lot of confusion
because it is difficult to focus on the ground effects and boss abilities,
such as Reckless Charge, when there are so many adds on the
screen. For this reason, the Living Sands need to be picked up quickly
by one of the tanks and AoE-ed down with priority.

Melee players should be mindful of the Quicksand pools that
Living Sands leave behind when they die.

Most of the boss abilities, such as Reckless Charge, Sand Bolt,
Biting Cold, etc. cannot target them. That does not mean, however, that they
can simply ignore them. These abilities can still target melee players next to
to them. When this happens, tanks need to react properly, just like other
raid members.

When the Living Sands appear, it is best if the tank that is not
currently tanking Malakk takes them. Towards the end of the fight,
Sandstorm will create a large number of Living Sands, and it
may be a good idea to divide them between the two tanks (the tank
not currently tanking Malakk would be getting a larger share).

In 25-man, you can use a third tank if handling the Living Sands
proves difficult.

9.3. Healing Concerns

As with most raid encounters, there will be a sustained amount of
raid damage. At times, there will be increased damage on some players,
and this is what this section focuses on.

If a boss is allowed to reach 100 Dark Energy, they will start casting
Dark Power every second until the empowerment is removed. The damage
of Dark Power increases by 10% after each cast, so raid-wide damage can
quickly get out of control.

When Kazra'jin is empowered, he will enter Overload every
time he casts Reckless Charge. As each player will receive, as
Nature damage, 50% of the damage they deal to Kazra'jin, you should expect
to use a few cooldowns when Kazra'jin is empowered.

9.4. DPS Concerns

While it is important to break the bosses out of their empowerment
before they reach 100 Dark Energy, the raid should not simply burn them
down when they are empowered.

Mar'li's and Malakk's abilities do not deal more damage while they
are empowered. The increased raid damage from Kazra'jin's empowerment
being the result of Overload reflecting 50% of the damage he
receives, it is not advised to burn him down.

Therefore, you will want the empowerment for each of these three bosses
to run almost its full
course, until 80 to 100 Dark Energy. Even if a boss gets to cast
Dark Power, it will not wipe the raid right away, and you will
be able to survive easily through the first 10 seconds or so.

The exception is Sul, as you generally want to avoid the second
cast of his Sandstorm ability, so you should burn him down while
he is empowered.

A consequence of not having to burn down bosses while they are empowered
is that you can afford to spend some time damaging the other bosses. In that
regard, we have two suggestions to offer.

Refrain from damaging Frost King Malakk. This will ensure that Malakk is
never the lowest health boss, preventing the Blessed Loa Spirit from
targeting him, which can be problematic if Mar'li's tank is currently also
tanking Malakk.

9.5. Alternative Strategy: Burning Sul the Sandcrawler

Many raid groups have reported that burning Sul the Sandcrawler made
the fight a lot easier. To do so, tank Sul next to Malakk or Mar'li if they
are empowered and try to break the empowerment from cleave/AoE damage while
focusing mainly on Sul. Use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp
at the pull.

Alternatively, you can save it and use it if it becomes necessary,
for example, if you will not manage to break a boss out of their empowerment
in time or if you have issues handling the last spawn of Living Sands.

Every other time that an empowerment is broken, a random raid member will
receive a debuff from the Spirit of Gara'jal, called a Soul Fragment.
This Soul Fragment can be passed on to another raid member through an extra
action button that the player also gains. While the Soul Fragment is on a
player, it stacks a debuff on them every 5 seconds, called Shadowed Soul.
Shadowed Soul increases damage taken by 2% per stack, until the end of the
fight. Passing the Soul Fragment to another player causes the new player to
start stacking Shadowed Soul on them. The Soul Fragment can be passed along
indefinitely.

Players who take damage from Frost King Malakk's Frostbite are
affected by Body Heat. 8 seconds later, they become unable to soak
Frostbite for 8 seconds.

When empowered, Kazra'jin casts Discharge instead of
Overload. This spell reflects a percentage of the damage he takes to all
raid members, instead of just to the attacking player.

The Shadowed Loa Spirits no longer exist. Instead, when
High Priestess Mar'li is empowered, she casts Twisted Fate. This spell
targets two players (a nearby melee player and the farthest raid member from
that player) and spawns a small add at the location of each player. These
two adds travel towards one another
and deal raid damage, which is greater the closer the two adds are to each
other. If one of the two adds dies, the other one pulses AoE raid damage
until it is killed.

If two Quicksand void zones overlap, then they merge into one
larger void zone. When Sul casts Sandstorm, these large, merged void
zones spawn larger, more powerful adds.

12.2. Strategy

The strategy for the encounter works similarly to that for the Normal mode,
with a few key differences. We will list them all here first, before
detailing them further.

You must make absolutely sure that Sul the Sandcrawler dies before he is
ever empowered, because the adds resulting from his Quicksand (especially
those from merged overlapping void zones) are extremely damaging and almost
impossible to handle without many deaths.

You must pass on the Soul Fragment so that each raid member
ends up with around 5 stacks of the debuff. Once all raid members have 5
stacks, you can start passing it around again until everyone has 10 stacks.

Players affected by Frostbite should stand away from other raid
members, and they should receive copious amounts of healing, as well as
defensive cooldowns.

You must be very careful with the DPS done to Kazra'jin when he is
empowered, since it will result in heavy raid damage.

You must slow, stun and kill the adds summoned by High Priestess Mar'li's
Twisted Fate.

12.2.1. Kill Order

The first thing you need to understand about the Heroic mode strategy is
the importance of the kill order. Sul the Sandcrawler cannot be allowed to
ever be empowered, as we explained above, so you must kill him before this
time. In order to do this, you will have to do as much DPS as possible to him
during the previous 3 troll empowerments, all while making sure to break each
of them in time.

As the fight starts, you should tank Sul the Sandcrawler together with
Frost King Malakk, and focus on Sul with
Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp. Some cleave damage will be done
to Malakk as well, and you will need to switch to Malakk before he reaches
100 Dark Energy and get him to 75% health.

At this point, you should aim for High Priestess Mar'li to have higher
health than Kazra'jin, so that she is empowered next. You should then
repeat the same process as before, dealing as much damage to Sul, while making
sure to break Mar'li's empowerment in time.

Once Sul is dead, you should try to kill Kazra'jin next (although Frost
King Malakk is also a valid target).

12.2.2. Handling the Soul Fragments

The way to handle each Soul Fragment is essentially quite
simple. The player who first receives it should keep it until they have 5
stacks of the Shadowed Soul debuff (so, about 25 seconds). After that,
this player should pass the Soul Fragment on to another player who does not
have any Shadowed Soul stacks, and so on. Tanks should never be given the
Soul Fragment until Frost King Malakk is dead.

Once everyone in the raid has 5 stacks of the debuff, players can start
taking it up to 10 stacks, and all bosses should be dead long before anyone
needs to take more stacks than that.

Finally, players with good damage reduction abilities, such as Warlocks,
can take more stacks to lighten the load on the rest of the raid.

12.2.3. Handling Frostbite

Frostbite deals more damage in Heroic mode, and due to the
Body Heat debuff, it is not as simple as in Normal mode to reduce its
damage.

It is possible to set up a rotation of players to move into range of the
player affected by Frostbite, and then to move out as soon as they are
debuffed by Body Heat (since, not only will they no longer reduce the damage of Frostbite, but they will also take the full unreduced damage themselves).
However, we do not find this tactic to be ideal, since it requires a lot of
moving from your raid members, and it is very easy to have accidental deaths
along the way.

Instead, we recommend the players affected by Frostbite to move out of the
raid, and endure the full, unreduced damage of Frostbite there alone. Healers
will need to spam heal these players, and cast external damage reduction
cooldowns on them, but this should be possible with a bit of practice.

12.2.4. Handling Discharge

Kazra'jin's Discharge is one of the more problematic issues
of the fight. Whenever Kazra'jin is empowered, the entire raid will take very
large amounts of damage, so healers will have to use defensive cooldowns and
make sure to keep the raid's health high.

There is not much that you can do to reduce the damage taken, since there is
a certain amount of DPS that must be done to Kazra'jin. That said, we recommend
that every DPS player switches to the Blessed Loa Spirits summoned by
High Priestess Mar'li whenever they spawn. This will give the healers a brief
respite to top the raid off, since there will be no raid damage while
Kazra'jin is not taking damage.

12.2.5. Handling Twisted Fate

Twisted Fate is not particularly difficult to handle. Whenever the
ability is about to be cast, a designated ranged DPS player should move very
far away from the rest of the raid, so that they are targeted by Twisted Fate
(as the farthest-away player). This will result in a large distance between the
two adds created by Twisted Fate, giving your raid enough time to kill
them.